15th NOV 1817 BATTLE OF YERWADA/KHADKI - BAJIRAO PESHWA
Battle of Khadki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
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| Battle of Kirkee (modern-day Khadki) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Third Anglo-Maratha War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Maratha Empire |  British East India Company | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Bapu Gokhale | Lt. Col. Burr, Captain Ford | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 28,000 | 3,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 500 | 86 | ||||||
The Battle of Khadki,also known as Battle of Kirkee or Ganesh Khind, took place at Khadki, India on November 5, 1817 between the forces of the British East India Company and those of Bajirao II, the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. Khadki is situated on the outskirts of Pune in Maharashtra, India.It later became a military cantonment.
Contents
[hide]Prelude[edit]
Maratha Empire in decline[edit]
The Third Battle of Panipat,proved disastrous for the Maratha Empire/Confederacy. Maratha Sardars took advantage of the reduced strength and command of Peshwas over Maharashtra and the Maratha Empire started to decline. The Peshwas were in very high debts (taken for battles and governance) and were not receiving any income from taxes (all Sardars were keeping the taxes to themselves instead of sending it to Peshwas). They were not in a good position to fight with British forces. After death of Madhavrao Peshwa, the Maratha empire fell into a state of constant decline.
Armies[edit]
The Maratha Army consisted of Huzurat or Sarkari Fouz and had the following Generals when the battle began. Marathas: Bapu Gokhale, assisted by Anandrao Babar, Vithalrao Vinchurkar, assisted by Rajwade, Govindrao Ghorpade Mudholkar, Tryambakrao Rethrekar, Shaikh Miraj, Dafle, Bahirji Shitole, Mor Dixit, assisted by Sardar Kokre, Sardar Appa Desai Nipankar, assisted by Sardar Pandhare, Sardar Naropant Apte, Sardar Yashwantrao Ghorpade Sondurkar, Sardar Wamanrao Raaste, Sardar Chintamanrao Patwardhan, assisted by Bapu Narayan Bhave Ramdurgkar, Sardar Mutalik on behalf of Pant Pratinidhi, Sardar Naik Anjurkar, Sardar Purandare, and Sardar Nagarkar, assisted by Moreshwar Kanitkar. All these sardars (the equivalent of Earls or Dukes) had both cavalry and infantry. The army's Artillery was led by Laxmanrao Panshe and his nephew.
The East India Company's army was led by Col. Burr, who marched to Kirkee on 1 Nov., and Capt. Ford, who marched towards on 4 Nov. Bapu Gokhale commanded a total force of 28,000 men (20,000 horse and 8,000 infantry) with 20 guns. The British force numbered only 3,000, of whom 2,000 were cavalry and 1,000 infantry, with 8 guns.[2]
Battle[edit]
A detachment commanded by Lt. Col. Burr advanced from Dapodi village near confluence of Pavana and Mula rivers. His detachment was placed in Poona for the protection of the Peshwa. Before the battle, the Peshwa's commander, Moropant Dixit, had tried to bring Captain Ford onto his side, but these overtures were refused.
First, Vinchurkar`s gun infantry targeted British Resident Elphinstones house by firing from other side of river. After he left, Kokre's cavalry burnt all the bungalows of the British in the vicinity. The residency was left and was at once sacked and burned, and Mr. Elphinstone retired to join the troops at Kirkee. A message to advance was sent to Colonel Burr who moved towards Dapuri to meet Captain Ford's corps; the corps united and together pushed on to the attack. Amazed by the advance of troops whom they believed had been bribed or panic-struck, the Maratha skirmishers fell back, and the Maratha army, already anxious from the ill-omened breaking of their standard, began to lose heart. Gokhla rode from rank to rank cheering and taunting, and opened the attack pushing forward his cavalry so as to nearly to surround the British. In their eagerness to attack a Portuguese battalion, which had come up under cover to enclosures, some of the English sepoys became separated from the rest of the line. Gokhla seized the opportunity for a charge with 6000 chosen horsemen. Colonel Burr who saw the movement recalled his men and ordered them to stand firm and keep their fire. The cavalry charge proved ineffectual. The charge was broken by a deep morass in front of the English. As the horsemen floundered in disorder the British troops fired on them with deadly effect. Only a few of the Maratha horses pressed on to the bayonets, the rest retreated or fled. The failure of their great cavalry charge disconcerted the Marathas. They began to drive off their guns, the infantry retired, and, on the advance of the British line, the field was cleared. Next morning the arrival of the light battalion and auxiliary horse from Sirur prevented Gokhla from renewing the attack. The European loss was sixty-eight and the Maratha loss 500 killed and wounded.[3]
Aftermath[edit]
A few battles were later fought against the Bhosale faction at Sitabardi in Nagpur and against the Pindaris. The Peshwa, the chief executive of the Maratha Confederacy, was militarily defeated in the Battle near Ashirgad. The next skirmish occurred after 5th,November at Yerawda where Sardar Yashwant Ghorpade's forces were lured away by the British by bribing. This paved the way for battalions coming from Ghodnadi and Jalna and gunners of Panshes artillery to join the British, resulting in the Peshwa fleeing Pune. The East India Company took over the Shaniwarwada, the seat of the Peshwa, on November 17, 1817. By 1818, the Peshwa had surrendered to the East India Company.
The battlefield today[edit]
After the battle, the East India Company troops crossed the river at a place called Yelloura ford which is still unidentified. It is speculated that the place was probably where the bund of Bund Garden exists today. "Yelloura" is perhaps a corruption of Yerawda of today. This corroborates well with the mention of a nearby hill in Blacker's account (see references below). Also, the morass which played a crucial role in the battle is unidentified as of today. It is expected to have existed in the Range Hills Colony, the Military Station Depot of Khadki or near the Symbiosis Institute of Management or towards the College of Agriculture. An account of the battle by Grant Duff is well known to historians. Grant Duff observed the battle from a position on the hills of Bhamburda. This location is likely to have been on the hill that faces behind the present day Hanuman Nagar or Pandav Nagar.
HISTORY
Human History
Consciousness is a poorly grasped concept. We know so much about the world but very little about our own consciousness. One important facet of human consciousness is the awareness of history. Few people realize how crucial history is to ones own daily life, struggles and relationships. Society is not a collection of people but a collection of relationships which evolve in time. If one fails to be aware of what happened a few minutes, days or years ago, one could said to be 'out of this world' to the respective extent. Typically such would happen when one is mentally unsound, physically unconscious or has poor brain function with say advancing age. But one never calls somebody mentally unsound if that person forgets much of ones early childhood. However, seen this way, it is just a matter of degree owing to the varying state of mental and physical faculty. But awareness of pieces of society as webs of relationships at various points in time is common to all the people, even if it is to varying extents, some big others very very small. But it is inconceivable that someone could live in society without being aware of absolutely no subweb of relations. The more one knows about this web around oneself, how it has evolved, what made it evolve the way it did, the more connected and better connected one is to the human sphere around oneself. The awareness of history also enables one to try ones hand at predicting what could happen in the future by considering this web and other webs of which it is a part. I have history as my own long standing hobby. I do appreciate the above dimension of my hobby, but I do it simply because it thrills me! Battles have been important turning points in the evolution of society. There are several battles that have taken place in the 17th and 18th century in the subcontinent which obviously are important. Here are a few (not necessarily major) ones.
Battle of Assaye
Arthur Wellesley is credited with the British victory in this battle in September 1803 in Central-Western India. The picture below is an artist's rendering, but some features like the disciplined manouvering of troops, nature of cannon, the flag, uniforms etc. are generally accurate.
BATTLE OF ASSAYEI have been interested in the Battle of Khadki for several years now. See the Wikipedia articlethat I have been writing, besides information below.
Battle of Khadki: This took place beginning from 5th November 1817 (at about 4 p.m.) in a region near Pune between Bopodi, Khadki village, University Road and Agricultural College. A few days later a minor skirmish took place near Yerawada in sequel and then another major action near Satara. The East India Company wanted the Peshwa (Bajirao II) to give up Trimbakji Dengle who was supposed to have planned the murder of Gangadhar Shastri, an envoy from Baroda, in Pandharpur. Gangadhar Shastri was under the protection of the Company.(Some evidence seems to have been offered pointing towards a conspiracy on the part of a section of the court of the Baroda state. See a report on a 1939 thesis presented to the London university.) Apart from this affair, the Company wanted the Peshwa to act militarily against Pindaris, a loosely organized band of raiders and looters who had made life difficult for the common people. The Pindaris were known to get protection and infrastructure from the Maratha confederates for a payment. This led to the above mentioned confrontation and battle which proved to be the final closure of the Maratha polity. Another battle was fought at Sitabuldi in Nagpur against the Bhosale faction in the same month. Since Peshwa was the titular executive of the Maratha Confederacy, it could be said that the Battle of Khadki and its sequels were the last military actions of the Maratha Confederacy when having independent military status. A copy of a map with the details of the main battle and a satellite picture of the same area today is given below. The map appears to have some problem with the scale if the location of Chatushshrungi temple (Pagoda) is assumed correct. I am currently exploring the field. Certainly, most of the roads indicated have changed. This has complicated the task of accessing and guessing the locations. However, the excellent agreement with the shape of the river has helped. Recently, with the help of Wikimapia, I have been able to locate the place where the Peshwa's cavalry charged the 7th Bombay Native Infantry. It was from the current day Symbiosis Institute of Management via Range Hills Colony extending towards the boundary of Agriculture College.
[Map from The Gazette of the Bombay Presidency.] [Recent satellite picture of the same geographical region.] A painting of Pune from somewhere a little north of the present day Sangam Bridge (towards Holkar Bridge). This was Pune in 1804. The battle above had not taken place. The residency is seen in the picture (the building with a white flag to the right). It existed at the location of the present day Magistrate's residence opposite CID office near Sangam Bridge. An account by James Mackintosh who visited Pune the same year is an interesting description to read with this picture. Some information is also available about a trip made by Bajirao II in 1802 to Bombay. Bajirao II 's forces attacked the residency years later, burnt the excellent library it had and uprooted trees planted by Charles Malet. As this was being done, Mountstuart Elphinstone the resident swam across to the northern bank and made his way up via Holkar bridge to join his forces at Khadki.
A picture of the market part of the encampment of Daulatrao Shinde's military in 1809. Campaigns like these involved several financial contracts with moneylenders and rich bankers. The terms appear to have been quite flexibly implemented till the advent of the revenue administration of the British. Presents and gifts were traditionally accepted. There was a tendency to mix them up with accounts leading to unclear perspectives on the side of the concerned parties with respect to one another. The Maratha soldier, like his counterparts in the other subcontinental states of that time, was not paid regularly. This was more of a tradition than inability to support armies. Soldiers were expected to fend for themselves by deals vaguely agreed upon. This lent considerable scope for looting, misunderstandings, insecurity and related uncertainty amongst both the soldiers and common people. Further, the local states used to depend upon the soldiers for revenue. With poorly declared terms, and a traditional lack of common usage of the written word, this was situation where governance could get severely compromised. In fact, it did with bands of Pindaris menacing a region largely within Central India.
A bad news for history fans. Adwait, a tortoise brought by Robert Clive passed away in the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata. This was the only animal which had seen important personalities which shaped the destiny of the subcontinent....and it was very much alive for all these days!
A Map showing the political situation in the subcontinent in the 16th and 17th centuries
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Anglo-Maratha_War
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War on 15-November-1817. 15-November-1817, Battle of Yerwada. Our Other Sites MediaWorld.Info RajPurohit.com FreedomIndia.com.HUMAN HISTORY
cms.unipune.ernet.in/~sukratu/welcomehist.html
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The Third Anglo-Maratha War broke out between the Marathas and the British in 1817. The Peshwas were vanquished at the Battle of Khadki (then deciphered ...History - Pune Rural Police
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Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra - From your Internet address - Use precise location
![[Map from The Gazette of the Bombay Presidency.]](http://cms.unipune.ernet.in/~sukratu/diagram2.jpg){kind=link}
![[Recent satellite picture of the same geographical region.]](http://cms.unipune.ernet.in/~sukratu/diagram1.jpg){kind=link}
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